Spiral spring in the watch mechanism

In the last quarter of the 17th century they began to use a spiral spring in the watch mechanism, which changed its form: it became more concave, onion-shaped.

That was also the time when special cases were made to carry the watches, and greater became the part played by goldsmiths.
Antique timepieces show very well how masters liked to decorate all details of a piece, including the head of the time-setting mechanism, as well as the plate that covers the mechanism and that is called “Lichinka”.

“Lichinkas” were usually decorated with an openwork design, but very often we can see blind plates covered with pictures in painted enamel invented by Jean Toutin and which became very popular in the 1630s.

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The first running spring clocks Some timepieces, such as sun-dials and water-operated watches were known to people from time immemorial. Smaller individual timepieces became possible only after the running spring was invented. It was at the beginning of the 16th century that Peter Heinlen from Nuremberg made several spring clocks. Soon they began to